Out for a Stroll [Closed]

A gentle, rare breeze blew threw the Sand Village, just as the unrelenting sun began to have its brilliance obstructed by the horizon. And in the breeze, slowly being carried away, was a small, white cloud of sweet-smelling smoke, its shape funneling down to no more than a thin line, at the base, line which came out of a golden, long pipe. And holding the pipe firmly between his fingers was a tall, thin man with spiked, blonde hair and calm, yet attentive, piercing blue eyes.

Shuiro Kagetora, current and somewhat new Kazekage in the village, had dared to leave behind his endless pile of unfinished work and unsigned contracts, petitions and acknowledgements, on top of his desk, to come out for a bit of this surprisingly satisfying draft of air. This, in itself, was a rare occurrence, but to have the Kazekage outside to enjoy it, the man known for being one of the most hardworking and dedicated people in this village, one who never left his office until everything was finished, put away and cleaned, was indeed something most gossipers would discuss for weeks to come.

Undoubtedly, there was something about this dusk and this breeze that brought out the regularly unseen side in most people. Donning his typical blue, patterned kimono, Kagetora slowly walked through the streets he often called his own, the streets that saw him go from a lanky, shy, useless young man to what he is now, the strongest ninja in this village. Glancing around, he saw the lights in several homes and shops being turned on, the children being beckoned to go inside and the blinds on windows being drawn. This was, in no way, uncommon. In the middle of the desert, while the days were unmercifully hot and could drain the life of even the most lively of children, the night was even worse. When the Sun, patron of the heat and brightness, retired for the day, its splendor was quickly replaced by a frigid cold, one even the most seasoned war veterans complained about. Indeed, the dipping of the sun behind the horizon signaled everyone to retired to their homes, to hide in the comfort of their cozy blankets and warmth of their loved ones. And yet, in this uncannily eerie dusk, there was still people walking around. People who signaled no will or wish to go home, to take cover from the certainly coming cold. People like Kagetora who, immersed in his own thoughts, failed to realized he had left his four bodyguards behind.

Useless, he usually called them. He knew they were.. a necessary evil, him being a man of his importance and all, and he may have agreed to their presence at most times simply to please the Sand Council but, he often wondered.. What were those elderly fools thinking? When would the strongest Sand ninja ever need the help of mere mercenaries? When would they, of all people, be of use fighting off a threat the Kazekage could not face? It boggled his mind but, he knew, it was pointless to continue pondering about this subject. Despite his strengths and great deeds, he was still fairly new at the position and to be creating waves this early would certainly not bode well for his career. All in its due time, he thought.

Hurrying to keep up with him, as he stopped for a split second, the bodyguards puffed and panted just from the short distance they had to jog to get to him. And even then, when they got to him and continued walking, Kagetora did not move.

"Completely and utterly useless, aren't you?" he said, his voice unable to contain the hint of annoyance and resignation that filled it, as he directed his words to the four heavily armored men. "I thought I had warned you those armors of yours would be counter productive. You cannot even maintain a proper walking pace without growing tired, and you expect to protect me? Furthermore...you haven't even managed to notice we have been trailed this whole time, ever since I left my office.."This time, his gaze left the visagee of the men in front of him and, rather, focused on a particularly well hidden dark alley, to their left and behind them, as he signaled with a nod in that direction, though maintaining his back turned to the hidden assailant."..And you, stranger. Despite your best efforts, you're still as noisy as a pregnant, crippled ostrich. How did you expect me, of all people, not to notice you? Now.. reveal yourself!"

Lucario sat on top of building with a few small pastry snacks on his lap and an open book in his left hand. He worse his usual black Shihakusho (kimono) with the white obi sash wrapped tied around his waist, along with his village headband wrapped around the top of his left arm. Above his Shihakusho he wore his sleeveless white Haori with his own personal symbol the crescent moon. Since he wasn't assigned a mission today he didn't have much to do except read and train but he couldn't really train since he didn't have a master to teach him so in reality he could only read.

He closed his book shut and looked up at the sky wondering what he should do. Ever since he fought with Naoko and Law he realized just how weak he truly was. All this time he thought he was stronger but their fight had brought him in to reality. Lucario laid back on the roof letting out a loud sigh. "I can't get stronger if I don't have a master to teach me the way of the sword."He thought. His head turned to the left as he looked at his bokken. Lucario then sat up grabbing a little pastry and unwrapped it. The small of the chocolate filled his nose as he slipped it into his mouth."But there aren't exactly that many master swordsmen running around." He thought.

He looked over the edge having his turquoise eyes gaze down at the street as people walked home from their long day of working, but then something happened that almost never happened. The Kazekage was leaving his office for the first time in who knows how long. Lucario eyes widened as he saw him exiting the building. "What's the Kazekage doing out and about? The only time anyone ever see's him is in his office." He thought. The reason Lucario was thinking like that was because the only time Lucario ever saw the Kazekage was when he was assigned a mission and that was only once. Then it occurred to Lucario that the kazekage was known through out the village as a master swordsmen."This is to perfect." Lucario thought. Here he was looking for a master and all the sudden the Kazekage just happened to be walking in front of him. Lucario thought it was a sign from god.

Lucario stood up allowing the wrappers from his pastries to fall on to the roof as he watched the Kazekage and the his guards walk down the street. "Might as well see what's going on if anything is going on." He thought. He turned around grabbing his bokken and slid to where the handle stuck out past his left shoulder. What held the bokken in place was a light blue scarf like piece of clothing that wrapped around his body like a sash and held together by a round, star-like clip. He waited till they had passed the building he was standing on and began to follow them jumping from rooftop to rooftop wondering where they were going. With every jump from building to building Lucario landed with a low thud but it was over powered by the sound of the Kazekages guards who armor clanked loudly.

"Well looks like I don't have to be a quiet sine their armor makes so much noise." He mumbled to him-self. He had clearly under estimated the Kazekages power since suddenly they stopped dead in their tracks. When they stopped Lucario tried to as well but his foot and weight were all ready over the edge and he couldn't stop him-self. He tried but it resulted in Lucario falling all the way down to the ground landing square on his belly. He stood up groaning in pan as he heard a voice yell out to him saying that he was noticed and had to show him-self. A shiver went down Lucarios spine as those words rang through his ears.

Lucario walked out of the ally with his hands up showing that he wasn't a threat to the Kazekage. "Sorry about Kazekage-dono just you hardly ever come out of your office and when I saw you in the street I couldn't help but wonder what would bring you out here." Lucario slowly lowered his hands down his waist looking at the Kazekages guard then back to the Kazekage him-self. "Umm it's not my place to say but maybe your guards should lose some armor that way they can hear better, and actually have the energy to do something besides breath heavy, but that's just my opinion."

Lucario appeared calm but in reality in his mind he was freaking out since he was actually having a conversation with the Kazekage."So Kazekage-dono what brings you out here on this night?" Lucario asked. "Are you going on a secret mission? Or maybe to a secret lover? What's her name? is she hot? Well of course she'd have to be to have the Kazekage sneaking out at night. Hmm who could it. be." He added to his earlier question, and just like that Lucario was ranting on and on as his fear took over not know what was going to happen to him.

The moment his voice rang through the street, reverberating his order inside the very alley he was targeting, he heard his pursuer's steps, slowly bur surely leading out of the darkness-covered alley. His expectation betrayed him as, as he looked up to where he expected his target to stand up to, he found himself having to look at least two feet down, to be able to look the person in the eye. Meeting his eyes back were turquoise colored eyes, not unlike his own, belonging to a white-haired teenager.

The attire of this newly appeared teenager was quite surprising, even for Kagetora, known for his elaborate and over the top clothes. He dressed like a high-ranked army general would've, in terms of formal clothes, wearing a white Haori with some kind of symbol on the back, over a black kimono. In fact, if it wasn't for the circumstance, Kagetora might have even appreciated his outfit.

"Oh", he began saying, his body language relaxing but his face remaining stern, turning his back to the newly met person before even finishing his sentence, "It's just a kid. Lets go."But as he began walking, the teenager's voice spoke back, hesitant at first but, nonetheless, sure and audible enough to be heard from twenty paces away."Oh? Since when do you, or anyone else for that matter, have the authority to ask of the Kazekage for information on his motives or routine? Don't overstep yourself, child" he began replying but, quickly enough and as the teenager continued speaking, his arrogance turned into a full-blown laughter. Laughing for a few seconds, he ended up needing to slightly bend forward to recover his breath, then facing his guards and pointing at their interloper. "Ahhhh, my stomach. Did you hear that, you imbeciles? Even a mere.. Genin can see the obvious flaws of your attire. Where does that put you now? Academy student level of intelligence? Quite accurate, if I say so myself.." he sneered, unable to keep back another wave of laughter, this one shorter and slightly more contained.

"You are right, though," he spoke once more towards the Genin, his face having recovered its previous appearance, "It isn't your place. As it isn't your place to ask anything of me, including my destination or even my possible company. Now, begone before I change my mind and punish you for sheer insolence and disregard for authority. ", as he began to slowly walk away, signaling his overburden guards to follow him and turning left into the next street, before giving a final yell of "And don't you dare to try following me again.", letting his voice trail off in the distance, as he left the genin behind.

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[OOC: Sorry for the short post. There's just not that much to say yet, at this point.]

Lucario raised on eyebrow as Kage asked since when does he have the authority to ask the kazekage what he was doing and Lucario replied "Because we're both shinobi of the sand village and I wasn't trying to over-step my boundary kazekage-dono What I was trying to say was that it's good to see you out and about around the village." He stopped talking as soon a Kage started to laugh and Lucario laughed with him a little till he started to insult his bodyguards by calling them imbeciles and idiots. "Kazekage-dono if I may it's not their fault they're just most likely afraid in failing to protect you and that's why dressed like that so that they might be able to shield you from on coming attackers." Now Lucario was defending them since they were only trying to do their job.

Lucario took a step back as Kages face went back to it's previous expression. Lucario bowed and spoke out "Sorry If i upset-ed kazekage-dono I was just curious since as I said before you hardly come out into the public like this."Lucario stood straight up seeing that Kage had all ready walked away. He began to follow them and when he did he heard Kages voice echo in the air telling him that he better not try and follow them. Lucario stopped dead in his tracks thinking that might have just been threatened or warned by kage.

Lucario sighed as the kage left but knew that he had to follow him no matter what. "Well he did say don't try... so I won't I try... I'll just do it." He thought. Lucario turned around facing the dark ally he had fallen into earlier and entered it then jumped from wall to wall making his way up till he finally reached the top of the building. He walked over to the edge seeing the kazekage walk down the next street with his bodyguards. "Well here goes nothing." He mumbled. He took a step back so he'd be out of view from below then ran to the edge of the next building and began jumping across the small gaps between the buildings. He stopped till he was seven good buildings ahead of the kazekage and his guards then jumped down in another ally landing with a low thud then walked out of the ally.

His head shifted to the right as his eyes gazed upon the approaching kazekage. He wondered what he should do. Should he just post up against the wall and act all calm or should he pretend to be doing something. Quickly Lucario picked that he better pretend to do something so he wouldn't get scolded. His eyes shifted around and he saw a small store open. He walked across the street and entered the store seeing that it was a grocery store . He sighed in relief and went to clerk asking for 4 dozen eggs. The clerk loaded up the eggs into two bags and handed them to Lucario. He gently set them on the ground and pulled out his wallet that looked like a fox and opened it up paying the clerk. "Well at least my parents bakery will have eggs for a day or two." He thought. He then picked up the bags tn put them over his shoulder.

He walked out of the store seeing the kazekage and tilted his head. "Kazekage-dono? What are you doing here?" He paused for a brief second and spoke again."Wait.. Don't tel me your following me now Kazekage-dono." Lucario kept his smile and closed his eyes saying "Well since you're the one following me I guess I better introduce my-self. My name is Lucario Hattori and you are?" Of course Lucario all ready knew who he was but it just a formal thing and Lucario didn't want to be anymore rude than he all ready way. He put one of the bags down and stuck his hand out for a handshake."It's nice to officially meet you Kazekage-dono." Lucario stated.

Quickly, Kagetora's footsteps took him through the maze that some of the Sand streets were. By now, the sun was completely down and, even though the breeze still prevailed, it no longer was something all that pleasant. Though the Kazekage's stiff hair did not waver in the strengthened draft, his clothes billowed behind him, as if they had a life of their own, waving and dancing, as the temperature continued to drop drastically, his own bodily heat slowly begin to seep right out of him, as if he was a container with a leak.

By now, any remnants of the differences in this day had slowly vanished: there were no longer people in the streets, lingering behind to enjoy the breeze or the short interval between the daily summer and winter. Every light on the street had been turned on, mirroring the gentle, widespread unnatural lighting inside every single house. Smoke had began to rise from the chimneys indicating the lighting of fireplaces and the quiet noise in the streets had turned into absolute silence. It was at this time of the day that the lack of trees and other greens made themselves apparent, as the lack of rustling of leaves and branches in the midnight wind was capable of unnerving those who weren't used to it.

Even trough the noisy march of his useless followers, Kagetora's senses were able to cut right through mild distractions as those and, as such, he could feel the silence press unto him, like a thick, cold wall behind his back, limiting his movement but, at the same time, gently vibrating, transmitting noises and movements from the room next door. It was no surprise, then, that the moment a set of hurried footsteps rang across the rooftops surrounding Kage, he heard them like he was right beside the culprit. And he knew who it was. He should've made himself a lot cleared. The steps went on ahead, quickly, and vanished in the distance, letting Kagetora know what to expect, which wasn't uncommon.

Before his guards knew it, the kid was again in front of him, his presence coming from the nearby alleyway, his bright, white hair once mroe standing out from the deep darkness behind him. A small smile flashed on Kagetora's lips as the Genin made his way across the street to a store, pretending to be doing something. Shuiro had to give it to him - his persistence was through the roof. Obnoxiously aggravating, but through the roof without a doubt. "Oh. It's you again. What a... pleasant surprise to see you again." Kagetora answered sarcastically, barely keeping his eyes from rolling. Then, he simply stared at the teenaged in front of him, his eyes perusing everything from his expression to his outfit and to the groceries he was carrying."That would've been an extremely smart technique, boy. If it wasn't for me hearing you run right through the rooftops. Did you serious expect to trick me, the Kazekage? Kid, you're twenty years too early. "

But the Genin kept talking and, as Kagetora scowled, a deep sigh of frustration left him."Look... Lucario? I'm going to make this extra simple for you, as you clearly cannot comprehend basic etiquette and social class behavior. I am your superior. I am everyone's superior. And when I tell you not to follow me, I mean I don't want to see you again. Do you understand that? Do you?" he asked, as he felt his guards tense up behind him, as if they were ready to pounce on something.

"Seriously? Do you inept, senseless simpletons really believe you have any need of tensing up for a mere Genin?" Kagetora harshly said, turning his face to his guards, right before focusing is attention back on Lucario, this time making his voice barely audible, but audible enough to be sure Lucario heard and heard properly, "I will give you one chance of explaining to me why you are being this obnoxiously inconvenient. You better make it good, boy."

Lucario was pretended to be oblivious to the sarcasm that Kage displayed when he mentioned that it was nice to see him again. "Likewise Kazekage-dono even though we just departed from each other." Lucario had a blank comedic stare as Kage mentioned that his trick was useless since he heard him running on the rooftops."Technique? I'm just buying groceeries my family needs for later on during the week. If that's a technique then I must be a gifted ninja wouldn't you say? But I wasn't trying to trick you at all Kazekage-dono" Lucario replied.

Kage began to lecture Lucario on how he should listen to what his elders say, and that since he the Kazekage of the village that whatever he said people had to do since he was the superior of everyone in the village. Lucario just nodded. "So this is what they mean when power changes people."Lucario thought. He heard stories about how the current Kazekage saved the village from attacks that seemed like ages ago to Lucario but he couldn't believe them since Kage came off as the kind of guy that only lived to serve him-self, but then again Lucario learned long ago when he first started to read to never judge a book by it's cover. Suddenly Kages guards tensed up as if they were about to attack

He jumped back at the moment he noticed the guards tensing up moving his left hand to the handle of his bokken. "If you're looking for a fight go somewhere else but if you want to taste the ground feel free to attack me." Lucario stated to the guards.There were two reason he sounded so confident. The first being that he had had one training session with a jounin and a Sanin of the village two days ago.Then secondly He knew they had to be strong if they were assigned to guard the Kazekage but that didn't matter since their armor took away all the maneuverability which but the advantage back in Lucarios side.

Besides that Lucario knew that all armor had weak points no matter how well put the armor and that the weak spot in armor was always the joints just like puppets. The only reason he knew this was because he was a kenjutsu practitioner which meant he needed to know how to drive a sword through armor and the only way he could do it was by attacking the joint. He turned to his head to the Kazekage as he told his guards to stand down, but Lucario couldn't help but feel slightly insulted by the Kazekage when he stated that Lucario was only a mere genin and could hold no possible threat to them. "At least give me a little credit Kazekage-dono, I may just be a genin but I can more than hold own in battle."

Lucario raised his left hand rubbing the back of his neck. "I wasn't trying to follow you for you see kazekage-dono my mom asked me to get some groceries from the store so that she wouldn't have to get up so early. My parents own a local pastry shop and we've run out of eggs and you can't have a very well pastry without eggs. The taste would be all thrown off along with the texture. So I just went to the this store to by some eggs." He raised the bag full of eggs showing them to kage."My family is just trying to make a living like everyone else and we can't do it without eggs." Lucario stated laughing a bit. "I wasn't trying to follow, but as i recall I passed you up when I headed to the store and at that moment you started to follow me Kazekage-dono." Lucario bowed his head knowing that he had come off as a bit of a smartass.